Finding The Best Financial Planner

To be sure, the stock markets and share markets of the world are prime targets for investment and money making. Many millionaires and billionaires the world over have proven that there is money to be made by investing in stocks. For the average person interested in creating wealth by investing in stock markets, a financial planner seems to be the best route to take. But what are the qualities and skills that you should look for when choosing the best financial planner to guide your investments?

Who Are Today's Financial Planners?

With only small exception, the financial planners whose services are available to the general public are just average, salaried and commissioned employees themselves. They sell financial products and managed funds on commission, and so they push the products that are in their best interests, rather than the financial products that are in the best interests of their clients.

If you take a cross-section of the people working as financial planners, you will find that very few of them are themselves millionaires. Most are people with average incomes, giving the advice they were trained or paid to give.

The Problem With Hiring A Financial Planner

Taking advice only from a person with a vested personal interest in a given financial product is far too limiting if the intention is to become wealthy; to become wealthy, all the financial options should always be open. That does not happen when the person giving the advice is influenced by what does or does not put money into his or her own pocket. Product-influenced financial advice has the best interest of the financial planner first, and not yours.

Putting Financial Planners to the Test

If the intention is to hire a knowledgeable professional who can give tested and proven investment advice, then the requirement should be that the planner is a proven, accomplished planner himself (or herself as the case may well be). After all, how could you expect to get make money with a financial planner that is not able to make him or herself rich with his or her own advice?

To find a reliable, wealth-producing financial planner, you have to look for one that is first a millionaire if that is what you hope to become. This person should be one that

- Can prove the success of his or her methods through his/her own personal financial success

- Can prove the success of his or her methods through replication, through the financial success of other clients

- Can offer more than a run-of-the-mill education in finance and wealth creation; in other words, one who imparts more than repeated theory

- Whose financial success has come directly from investment, not from the sale of investment advice and commissioned financial products (the difference between a real investor and an investment salesperson)

Given these criteria, there are few financial planners who will fit the bill. More likely, the people who will fit this resume are financial educators, not planners.

Taking Financial Advice Personally

The only way to insure that your financial planner has your best interests in wealth creation as a priority is to be your own financial planner. This is a route most people do not take because they see the world of finance and investment as far too complex, but in reality, investment in the interest of wealth-building does not need to be this way.

A solid education in wealth creation - in all of wealth creation, including mindset, lifestyle, attitude, and financial strategy - is the best way to become wealthy as an investor. Money spent on a wealth creation education is far better placed than commissions paid to financial planners with ulterior personal motives.

An education in building wealth is an investment for a lifetime. With it, you will have all the tools necessary to be your own best financial planner, and you will never again need to wonder if your financial planner is really interested in your financial success.

About The Author-- Sean Rasmussen is a stock market and property investor. He covers topics about self help and success. His other website deals with financial freedom and gives away a Stock Market Course DVD.

Article Source: Articles island - Free article submission and free reprint articles